Black September 1970: Jordan's War with the PLO Explained

Black September was the armed conflict between the Jordanian army of King Hussein and Palestinian guerrilla organisations in Jordan, fought mainly in September 1970. The fighting, which drew in a brief Syrian invasion and ended with an Arab summit in Cairo, broke the power of the guerrillas in Jordan and led the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to move its base to Lebanon.

Background

Jordan had annexed the West Bank after the 1948 war, and Palestinians formed a large part of its population. After the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and a new wave of refugees crossed the Jordan River into the East Bank, many settling in camps such as Baqa’a near Amman.

Palestinian guerrilla groups, known as fedayeen, made Jordan their main base for raids against Israel. Their prestige soared after the Battle of Karameh on 21 March 1968, when Fatah fighters and the Jordanian army resisted a large Israeli raid. In 1969 Fatah’s leader Yasser Arafat became chairman of the PLO.

By 1970 the guerrilla movement in Jordan had become a “state within a state”. Armed fighters set up checkpoints in Amman, collected taxes and sometimes clashed with the army. Radical groups such as George Habash’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) openly called for the overthrow of the monarchy. Serious clashes broke out in February and June 1970, and the king survived assassination attempts.

The hijackings

In July 1970 Jordan and Egypt accepted a US peace initiative known as the Rogers Plan, which angered the guerrillas. On 6 September 1970 the PFLP hijacked several Western airliners. Two were flown to Dawson’s Field, a disused desert airstrip near Zarqa in Jordan, and a third was added on 9 September; another was blown up in Cairo, and an attempt on an Israeli El Al flight was foiled.

The PFLP held hundreds of passengers hostage in the desert, demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners. On 12 September, after removing most of the passengers, the hijackers blew up the three empty aircraft in front of the world’s press. Remaining hostages were later freed in exchange for prisoners held in Europe. For King Hussein, the spectacle of his country’s sovereignty being openly defied was the final straw.

The September fighting

On 16 September 1970 Hussein formed a military government. On 17 September the Jordanian army launched an offensive against fedayeen positions in Amman and in refugee camps around the capital and in the north. Fighting in the city was intense, with tanks and artillery used in built-up areas, and many civilians were killed.

Around 18–19 September Syrian armoured forces, marked as units of the Palestine Liberation Army, crossed into northern Jordan and advanced towards Irbid. Jordan appealed for help from Britain and the United States, which moved naval forces into the eastern Mediterranean; Israel prepared to intervene if needed. On 22 September the Royal Jordanian Air Force attacked the Syrian columns, and with the Syrian air force, under defence minister Hafez al-Assad, staying out of the battle, the Syrians withdrew. Iraqi troops stationed in Jordan did not intervene.

Egypt’s president Gamal Abdel Nasser convened an emergency Arab summit in Cairo. On 27 September Hussein and Arafat signed an agreement ending the main fighting. Nasser died of a heart attack the following day.

Expulsion of the guerrillas

The Cairo agreement did not last. Under Prime Minister Wasfi al-Tal, the army gradually pushed the fedayeen out of Amman and other towns in the following months. In July 1971 a final offensive in the wooded hills around Jerash and Ajloun destroyed their last strongholds. Arafat and thousands of fighters moved to Lebanon, which became the PLO’s new centre.

By the numbers

Consequences

Jordan’s monarchy survived and restored its full authority, but the conflict left lasting bitterness between Jordanians and Palestinians. In 1971 a clandestine group calling itself the Black September Organization emerged from within Fatah. It assassinated Wasfi al-Tal in Cairo on 28 November 1971 and carried out the Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympic Games.

The PLO’s move to Lebanon added a powerful armed force to that country’s fragile sectarian balance, a key factor in the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. Jordan and the PLO later reconciled, and in 1988 Hussein gave up Jordan’s claim to the West Bank in favour of the PLO.

Timeline

• 1968, 21 March: Battle of Karameh boosts the guerrilla movement.
• 1970, June: Heavy clashes between the army and the fedayeen in Amman.
• 1970, 6 September: The PFLP begins the Dawson’s Field hijackings.
• 1970, 12 September: Three hijacked airliners are blown up near Zarqa.
• 1970, 17 September: The Jordanian army attacks fedayeen positions in Amman.
• 1970, 18–23 September: Syrian forces invade northern Jordan and then withdraw.
• 1970, 27 September: Hussein and Arafat sign the Cairo agreement.
• 1971, July: Final offensive expels remaining guerrillas from Jordan.
• 1971, 28 November: Black September Organization assassinates Wasfi al-Tal.

Why it matters

Black September decided who would rule Jordan and pushed the Palestinian armed movement into Lebanon, with far-reaching consequences. It gave its name to one of the most notorious militant groups of the 1970s and remains a painful memory in Jordanian and Palestinian history.